Inside the Studio—Recording Prophets and Outlaws

If you are fortunate enough to have a career as a recording engineer, you spend the first 20 years pretending to love everything. If you’re even luckier, you spend the next 20 years recording what you actually enjoy.

For me, that means multiple musicians in a room making music together. I’m really good at that—complexity, using the room as a member of the ensemble, bringing people together, recording, grabbing lunch, telling stories and being there for each other. I’m wired for that collective synergy.

Recording each instrument one at a time, followed by days of doing take after take of vocals? I’d rather not. I am self-aware enough to know that I tend to check out during sessions like that.